Farmland loses out in Pajaro River levee proposal

WATSONVILLE -- Santa Cruz County is losing its battle with the Army Corps of Engineers over flood protection for Pajaro Valley farmland.

By design, a proposed project to improve the Pajaro Valley levee system would allow some agricultural fields along the river east of the city to be flooded, county flood control manager Bruce Leclergue said Thursday at a neighborhood meeting.

More than 50 people, mostly residents of the senior communities along Salsipuedes Creek at the eastern edge of the city, turned out to get a briefing on flood control efforts.

As the debate over the long-delayed levee project continues, local flood protection efforts are moving forward, officials said.

The second phase of an $8.3 million project to remove 320,000 cubic yards -- or 32,000 dump truck loads -- of dirt from inside the levees to provide more carrying capacity in the river is scheduled to start the first week of June, Leclergue said. The first phase, completed last fall, ran from Highway 1 to Blackburn Street. The second will clear the river channel to Murphy Crossing.

Steve Palmisano, interim director of Watsonville Public Works and Utilities, said the city is working on a similar project that would provide more protection along Salsipuedes Creek.

The project is in the design phase, and will need approval from the Army Corps and state regulatory agencies, he said. The city will seek grants to fund the project.

The corps is expected to finalize a draft of the plan for the larger levee system upgrade, in the works for more than a decade, in the next couple of weeks, Leclergue said.

Under the plan, the existing levee, built in 1949 and considered inadequate since the river topped it in a 1955 storm, would be pushed back 100 feet between city limits and the river mouth on the Monterey Bay. Through the city and up Salsipuedes Creek, the levee would be raised several feet. But east of the city, on the Monterey County side, a new levee would circle the town of Pajaro and some surrounding farmland. On the Santa Cruz side, farmland and some homes would get a reduced level of protection.

Leclergue said county officials continue to make the case for a plan that would provide the same level of protection on both sides of the river.

"It's quite an area of concern for the Santa Cruz side," he said. "We've pushed and pushed and pushed the corps on that."